Importing Kensho OVF to ESX

OVF is a format that describes virtual appliances; these could be single or multiple machine. In doing so, OVF describes the virtual hardware and physical requirements of each machine.

Via Importing Kensho OVF to ESX | Citrix Blogs.

In my example I am going to use XenConvert to create an OVF Appliance from a XenServer XVA (that is an export of a XenServer VM), modify that using a VMware created OVF, and then import to ESX.

VMware ESXi vs. XenServer: Cloud and Desktop Feature Showdown

Heavyweight companies from around the globe are competing in the hot cloud space. In the center ring are two tough competitors Citrix and VMware. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Which should you choose?

In this article, I compare the hypervisor products from these two vendors, Citrix XenServer and VMware ESXi, and explore what each as to offer developers. Since hypervisors have become are a dime a dozen, it only makes sense that a comparison of VMware ESXi and Citrix XenServer also discusses the surrounding components to get a full picture of what each can do for the development

via VMware ESXi vs. XenServer: Cloud and Desktop Feature Showdown – Developer.com.

Protecting a Laptop from Simple and Sophisticated Attacks

Some people might say that many of these precautions are over the top and paranoid. I don’t consider myself an “elite hacker”, but I know that I could pull off most of the attacks that I’ve discussed above without much trouble. Cold boot and Evil maid are practical, easy to pull off, attacks. Why wouldn’t I defend against them?

via Protecting a Laptop from Simple and Sophisticated Attacks | Mike Cardwell, Online.

Scientists Claim New Map of Spiralling Light to Boost Fibre Optic Broadband Speed

Scientists working at the Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL), which is part of the City College of New York (CUNY), have discovered a new way of mapping spiralling light that could allow telecommunications operators the ability to harness “untapped data channels” within fibre optic broadband ISP cables.

Scientists Claim New Map of Spiralling Light to Boost Fibre Optic Broadband Speed − ISPreview UK News.

Device eth0 does not seem to be present error after cloning a linux machine

After some searching, i found out that there is a device manager for the Linux kernel named “udev” which remembers the settings from the NIC of the virtual machine before it was cloned. To fix the issue simply delete the the following file and it will be regenerated properly on reboot.

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

via Random IT Stuff » ‘Device eth0 does not seem to be present’ error after cloning a linux machine.

This worked for me with a VirtualBox clone that was giving me problems.  Google is simply an amazing resource!  And kudos to the linked site for coming up first with a no nonsense answer.

Data Center Fabric Architectures

This article describes five classes of fabric architectures based on how they use management, control and data (forwarding) plane. Throughout the article we’ll use the generic term switch to describe a forwarding device that can forward either Ethernet frames (layer 2 switch) or IP datagrams (layer 3 switch).

via Data Center Fabric Architectures – Internetworking Expert Hints.

How to Convert a KVM to a VDI

KVM is a bare metal virtualization software use to run several operating system on the same hardware. VDI is the file type used in VirtualBox, Sun Microsystems’ desktop virtualization product. A desktop virtualization product allows you to run an operating system in a window independent from your main operating system. VirtualBox and KVM use different file formats to store the virtual machine and transferring a KVM virtual machine to VirtualBox requires an indirect approach.

Via How to Convert a KVM to a VDI | eHow.com.

How To Mount a Linux LVM Partition in a XenServer Host

This article describes how to mount a Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) partition located inside a virtual disk (VDI) in a XenServer Host.

via CTX117791 – How To Mount a Linux LVM Partition in a XenServer Host – Citrix Knowledge Center.

Finally!!!!

I have never been a fan of logical volume management which seems to be a Red Hat thing.  It completely complicates matters when mounting drives.  XenServer, which is based off centos (I think) is littered with LVMs as the result of performing the above procedure will attest.  I hope Citrix had a good reason for doing this.